BB's Mysterious Zetabet
by Coco Gash Jirachi
Summary: Pre-series. BB is not happy about the fact that L always surpasses him. L can't come before B! Unless... BB tries to beat L using the Alphabet's opposite. "The Mysterious Zetabet". Slight BBxL if you squint.


**_BB's Mysterious Zetabet_**

**_By Coco Gash Jirachi_**

**_Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or The Mysterious Zetabet_**

**_Summary: Pre-series. BB is not happy about the fact that L always surpasses him. L can't come before B! Unless... BB tries to beat L using the Alphabet's opposite. "The Mysterious Zetabet". Slight BBxL if you squint._**

* * *

BB was _**not**_ happy.

Everyone seemed to notice.

BB swatted away at nothing while sitting in the garden, the stick in his hand coated lightly with dirt. His blood-red eyes glared and he growled at anyone who came near him. Either they high-tailed it back to where they came from or they ran past him quicker.

No one dared to make him angry - although, "angrier" covered it better, or more specifically. Beyond Birthday was not a force to be beckoned with by anyone.

Well, maybe except _**him**_...

"Good day, Beyond-kun,"

BB growled even more, his stick flying towards his identical. L merely ducked his head before reaching his hand up. He plucked the stick away from BB and tossed it over his shoulder.

"Lovely day, is it not?" L asked, seating himself next to BB in his crouching position. He opened the book he'd brought along with him and put his finger at his mouth, chewing at it lightly as his panda eyes scanned the pages of his book; _Advanced Genetic Engineering For College Graduates_ was the title.

"Since when do you or I care about the weather?" BB spat bitterly, biting down on his own hand just below his thumb. He broke his own skin and let his blood drip into his mouth.

"Just trying to make casual conversation," L responded, his eyes locked onto his book. "And might I recommend you read this book? It's one of my favorites." L smiled a little bit. "I can lend it to you, if you'd like."

"No thanks," BB replied, his words slightly muffled from his hand in his mouth. "I haven't gotten much past high school material." he said, his words dripping with sarcasm.

"I could tutor you-"

_**"Just because you're sitting next to me doesn't mean you can talk to me all of the time!!"**_

"Oh?" L picked his head up, and fearlessly he looked at BB's face. "I just thought you'd like a little company is all, Beyond-kun."

"Well, I hate you!"

L blinked. B **_hated_** him?

"Might I ask _**why?**_"

"Because!" BB responded, standing before he hopped off of the stone garden bench.

"That isn't a very well-thought out answer, even when thinking 40% better." L retorted.

**_"Fuck you!!"_** BB shouted before he stomped off, his bare feet becoming smudged with dirt as he lumbered away angrily.

L blinked for a moment, watching as BB disappeared behind a bush and out of his sight.

"Such language for an eight year-old boy..." L said, looking back down into his book. "Now, where was I with the gene splicing section?"

* * *

BB ignored the shouting Watari outside of his barricaded door. He continued to angrily lift his wooden desk chair above his head and crash it onto his carpeted floor in anger. This only went on for his usual twenty minutes before he tired out. That poor chair went through so much abuse thanks to the horrific little boy known as Beyond Birthday. His mind was great, yes... but his anger was _**horrendous**_.

BB threw himself onto his bed, landing face-first on his pillow. He then sat up on his knees, screeching and placing his hands over his nose.

**_"Damn it!! What the hell?!"_** He snatched up his pillow and growled as he looked down. "Huh?"

Rather than becoming angry, he blinked at the sight of the book. Set upon it was a slip of paper, which covered the title. A little bit curious, he picked up the note and read it over.

A's hand-writing.

_**Dear BB,**_

_**I kind of noticed you've been in a foul mood lately... so, I thought that maybe a good book would cheer you up! It's mine, but you can keep it for as long as you'd like. I liked it a lot, and maybe you will, too!**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**A**_

Setting the note aside, BB picked up the book. _The Mysterious Zetabet_, by Scott Corbett, illustrated by Jon McIntosh.

Smiling just a little bit, BB picked up the note again and he jumped onto the floor.

**_"Beyond, if you're going to make noise again -"_**

BB ignored Watari's rants. He pulled his chair upright and placed the book and note onto his desk. He hopped up onto his chair and crouched down before he opened up the book.

And so his "adventure" with Zachary Zwicker through Zyxland, with the challenges of the Zetabet, began. As well as his new-found respect for his beaten up chair.

* * *

BB emerged from his room several hours later with his book tucked under his arm triumphantly.

"Hey, A," he said quickly as he passed the boy by. A had only just raised his hand to knock on the other's door.

"Oh, BB! Hi!" A turned and sprinted to catch up to the B. "You liked my book?"

"Even though you already know this," BB turned his head and looked at A with an all too odd smile on his face. "A, you're a _**fucking genious!!**_"

"Um... thanks?... I think..."

"I can finally prove to L that it's impossible for him to surpass B!" BB said.

"We-well... what's wrong with him surpassing you?" A asked. "If you guys were numbers, you'd be 2, and L would be 12. His number would be bigger than yours, so he'd be able to surpass you there."

"A, that doesn't matter. L can never come before B."

A was still confused as BB led them into the playroom. Just as BB had expected, L was sitting at one of the "tea time" tables with a few girls. He kept on reading his book, but he was also somewhat participating in their activities of dessert and tea. His smile growing (if that was at all possible), BB marched over to the table, holding his book behind his back as he did.

"Good day, L-kun,"

The identical looked up, blinking once at BB, yet the stoic expression of L remained.

"Lovely day, is it not?" BB asked, his all too sugary-sweetly coated voice making A cringe.

"Since when do you or I care about the weather?" L repeated BB's own reply to the question.

"Just trying to make casual conversation," BB responded, rocking on his feet. His smile widened again, and he pulled out his book from behind his back. "And might I recommend you read this book? It's one of my favorites." BB chuckled a little. "I can lend it to you, if you'd like."

"Can we hurry this up a bit? We're having a tea party," L said.

"Why not read through this book and see how an L can surpass a B," BB responded, dropping the book on top of L's already opened _Advanced Genetic Engineering For College Graduates_.

"Huh?" A rubbed his ears and blinked.

"_The Mysterious Zetabet_?" L raised an eye brow at the title. "You've been reading a children's book?"

They _**are**_ children.

"This book proves that there is only one way an L can come before a B," BB's smile turned into a smirk as his expression changed from delighted to satisfied. "In Zyxland, where the Zetabet is the only guide to letters!"

"Um... BB?" A tugged on the back of BB's shirt. "That book's just fiction, and the Zetabet is only the Alphabet backwards..."

"Precisely, A!" BB responded, looking at the other. "In the Alphabet, B is the second letter, while L is the twelfth. In the Zetabet, B is the twenty-fifth, while L is the fourteenth. Therefore, the only way an L can surpass a B, is in the Zetabet, and the Zetabet is nothing but a work of fiction!"

BB's smirk widened.

"Put that in your cake and eat it, _L-kun._"

L tossed BB's book back at him, which knocked the other on the forehead.

_**"Ouch!! L, what the hell?!"**_ BB shouted, picking up his book from the floor. **_"You of all people should appreciate literature!!"_**

"I'm afraid to tell you this, BB," L began looking over at the other. "But you're almost too desperate to prove everyone wrong about you and I. You are such a child..."

BB felt his anger boiling over again, and he growled. Angrily, he pulled up the plastic toy chair L sat on, causing L to fall on his butt onto the ground. Before the greater could react, the chair hit L on the head and BB growled louder.

_**"I'm older than you, Lawliet!!"**_ BB shouted before he turned on his heels and ran out of the room and back up the stairs. _The Mysterious Zetabet_ was clutched tightly in his grasp. The new-found respect for his beaten up chair was assumed to be lost now.

L merely rubbed the top of his barely sore head as he stood the chair back up correctly.

"Pass the cookies, please?" L asked as he sat back down in his crouch.

"I should never have lent him that book..." A sighed, taking a cookie from the playing girls (plus L) before he slowly made his way to the stairs and for BB's room... again.

Perhaps _To Kill A Mockingbird_ would cheer BB up better...

* * *

Finally... I finally sat down and wrote this. Now I can go on with my life!

Aki: What life?

Gash: T-T Meanie-butt!!

Zeon: (Throws random sink at Aki)

Aki: - Not again...

Gash: ^-^ (Giggles) Haha!! Aki made a funny!!

Mimi: Pyupyu!! ^o^

Gash: Okay... truthfully, this came out to be a bit different than I thought it would have. But none the less, it was an idea of mine that wouldn't quit bugging my brain!

Zeon: All from a story you read back in elementary school.

Gash: Yep! ^-^ _The Mysterious Zetabet_! It was either third or fourth grade when I read it... I'm thinking fourth grade, because that's when I had a pregnant teacher.

Aki: - (Dizzily) What does a pregnant teacher have to do with it?...

Gash: I remember my teachers by appearance and then their appearance reminds me of their name! So I'm pretty sure it was fourth grade... the year before the most horrid school year of my life - actually, make that one of the three worst school years of my life.

Zeon: Three?

Gash: Fifth grade, sixth grade, and freshman year were the worst school years of my life! Let's leave it there!

Zeon: Can do.

Mimi: Pyupyu!!

Gash: Anyways... yeah, I just for some reason could not let this idea go. I had to write this! I hope you guys liked it... at least a bit...

Gash and Mimi: (Give puppy-dog eyes)

Zeon: I liked it, and not a little bit. I liked it a lot.

Gash: ^-^ It worked, Mimz!!

Mimi: Pyu!! ^o^

Gash: Now if you all would be kind enough to review?

Zeon: Review or you'll be sucked into Zyxland.


End file.
